Development of monitoring system using marine animals as oceanographic data collectors

生物记录科学，即在动物身上使用小型数据记录电子设备，为研究人员提供了检查海洋环境的能力，这些环境定义了水生动物的关键栖息地。这个项目的目的是开发新的技术来监测动物的行为与周围环境的关系。实地研究在从热带地区到南极洲的不同地方进行。目标物种是许多水生动物，如鱼类、爬行动物、海鸟和海洋哺乳动物。例如，我们研究了白令海东南部圣乔治岛厚嘴murres （Uria lomvia）的潜水行为，使用腹侧连接的深度温度记录仪与海面温度和温跃层深度有关。默尔斯在混合水体中比在分层水体中潜得更深，在分层水体中，大多数潜水都在温跃层深度以下。这表明，温跃层在塑造海鸟的潜水剖面方面很重要，可能是通过它对浮游动物和鱼类猎物的垂直分布的影响。在另一种情况下，部署在威德尔海豹身上的动物相机显示，南极冰架的底部被聚集的无脊椎动物群落覆盖，最有可能是刺胞动物和等足类动物。这一观察结果表明，南极冰架与海底一样，是大量海洋无脊椎动物的重要栖息地，海豹在恶劣条件下对海洋环境的收集是有效的。综上所述，海洋动物是海洋采样的良好平台，生物测井科学对研究水生动物的行为和生理与周围环境的关系具有重要意义。

Bio-logging science, the use of small, data-logging electronic devices on animals, provides the capacity for researchers to examine oceanographic environment that define critical habitat of aquatic animals. The aim of this project is to develop new technique to monitor animal behavior in relation to their surrounding environments. Field studies were conducted at various places from tropical region to Antarctica. Target species were many aquatic animals such as fishes, reptile, seabirds and marine mammals.For example, we examined the diving behavior of thick-billed murres (Uria lomvia) at St. George Island, southeastern Bering Sea, in relation to sea surface temperature and thermocline depth using ventrally attached depth-temperature recorders. Murres dove deeper in the mixed water mass, than in the stratified water, where most dives were to just below the thermocline depth. It suggests that the thermocline is important in shaping dive profiles of seabirds, possibly through its effect on the vertical distribution of both zooplankton and fish prey.In other case, animal-borne cameras deployed on Weddell seals revealed that the underside of an Antarctic ice shelf was covered by aggregated invertebrate communities, most likely cnidarians and isopods. This observation indicates that, similar to the sea floor, ice shelves serve as an important habitat for a remarkable amount of marine invertebrate fauna in Antarctica, and seals are effective for collecting oceanographic environment in severe condition.In conclusion, marine animals are favorable platforms for oceanographic sampling and bio-logging science is highly available to investigate aquatic animal behavior and physiology in relation to their surrounding environments.